Head Credit

Roles and Responsibilities

Job Description Head of Credit

Position: Head Credit
Industry: MFI / NBFC
Department: Credit
Reporting To: Business Head / GM's
Location: Coimbatore
Experience: 12–18+ years in Credit, Mandatory experience in MFI/NBFC lending

Role Purpose

The Head of Credit will be responsible for developing and implementing the organisation's overall credit strategy, ensuring prudent underwriting, portfolio quality, effective credit controls, and sustainable business growth. The role will oversee credit policy, appraisal, sanctioning, portfolio monitoring, credit risk management, and collection-related credit controls across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Credit Strategy & Policy

• Develop and implement the overall credit strategy in line with business objectives and risk appetite.
• Formulate, review, and update credit policies, lending norms, delegation of authority, and underwriting standards.
• Define customer eligibility, exposure limits, product-wise credit parameters, and risk-based lending criteria.
• Ensure credit policies comply with applicable RBI regulations and internal risk frameworks.

2. Credit Underwriting & Sanction

• Oversee the end-to-end credit appraisal and sanction process.
• Establish robust assessment methodologies for individual, group, JLG, MSME, and other lending products as applicable.
• Monitor adherence to sanctioning authority and exception approval processes.
• Ensure turnaround time (TAT) is maintained without compromising credit quality.

3. Portfolio Quality & Risk Management

• Identify emerging portfolio risks by geography, branch, product, customer segment, and vintage.
• Establish early-warning indicators and corrective action mechanisms.
• Review concentration risks, customer indebtedness, multiple lending, and geographic exposure.
• Work closely with Collections to address deterioration in portfolio quality.

4. Credit Risk Analytics

• Develop credit MIS, dashboards, scorecards, and portfolio monitoring tools.
• Analyse bureau data and internal customer repayment behaviour.
• Drive data-based credit decisioning and risk segmentation.
• Review credit models, scorecards, policy rules, and underwriting parameters periodically.
• Support development and implementation of automated credit decision systems.

5. Team Leadership

• Lead and develop the central and field credit teams.
• Define KPIs, productivity standards, and performance metrics for the credit function.
• Build a strong credit culture across branches and regional offices.
• Conduct regular training and capability-building programs for credit personnel.
• Ensure adequate staffing and succession planning for critical credit roles.

6. Audit, Compliance & Controls

• Ensure adherence to internal credit policies, regulatory requirements, and approved processes.
• Coordinate with Internal Audit, Risk, Compliance, and external auditors.
• Review audit observations and ensure timely corrective actions.
• Strengthen controls against fraud, misrepresentation, identity-related risks, and process deviations.
• Ensure proper documentation and maintenance of credit records.

7. Business Partnership

• Work closely with Business, Operations, Collections, Risk, Finance, Legal, Compliance, and Technology teams.
• Balance business growth with portfolio quality and risk appetite.
• Participate in new product development and provide credit-risk inputs before product launch.
• Review proposed expansion into new geographies and customer segments.

8. Management Reporting

• Present portfolio quality, credit performance, risk trends, and corrective actions to senior management and relevant committees.
• Prepare periodic credit reviews for the Board / Credit Committee / Risk Committee as applicable.
• Provide recommendations based on portfolio trends and credit-risk analytics.